Martha Louise (Hales) Lenz

Posted Dec 20, 2017

May 23, 1935 - December 16, 2017

Funeral services for Martha Louise (Hales) Lenz, age 82, of Wheatland, will be held at 2:00 P.M. on Friday, December 22, 2017, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Wheatland, Wyoming, with the Reverend Lincoln C. Winter presiding. Burial will follow at the Wheatland Cemetery.

A viewing is scheduled for Thursday, December 21st, at the Gorman Funeral Home in Wheatland from 4:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M., as well as Friday, December 21st, from 9:00 A.M. to11 A.M.

Martha passed from this life at Platte County Memorial Hospital in Wheatland on Friday, December 16, 2017 with her family present. She had endured the impacts of Fibromyalgia and Osteoporosis and was bedridden at her residence the past few years.

She was born in the home of her parents, Earle Harley and Mary Leila (Finley) Hales, at Whitman, Wyoming, on Thursday, May 23, 1935.

Martha attended school at Pine Knot, Harrison, and Lusk. As part of our nation’s ‘great-generation’ she experienced the Great Depression, World War II, and the Korean War, prior to graduating from Lusk High School in 1953. At the age of nine her mother died, Martha contracted a mild case of polio, her brother, Ernest Hales, was off fighting in the Pacific Theater and her father was left to raise Martha and her younger sister, Mary James, while working at the C & H Refinery in Lusk.

Martha and Hugo Lenz were married in 1953 and made their first home in Cheyenne, Wyoming while he finished his service at F.E. Warren Air Force Base. Two sons were born: Travis, wife, Cathy, and children, Clark and Taylor and Hugh, wife, Lynda, and children Brett and Kyle. The couple moved to Wheatland in 1956 and took over the local State Farm Agency. They worked together in the office, which was run out of their home, until 1975.

While helping run the business, as well as being a homemaker, Martha found time to pursue a variety of interests including being an avid reader, bowling at Sunrise and Wheatlanes, playing bridge, many church activities, traveling with Hugo, the American Legion Auxiliary, following her sons’ and grandchildren’s activities, and her most enjoyable pursuit, birdwatching at the cabin in Harris Park.

Martha loved The Lord, was extremely devoted to her family and husband of 64 years and was an American patriot. Her quick and dry wit, generous spirit, inquisitive mind, and ability to converse about a wide array of topics will be missed.

Pallbearers will be: Clark Lenz, Kyle Lenz, Cory Schroeder, David James, John Skoog, and Ed Sorge. In addition to family members previously mentioned, Martha’s sister, Ida Doane, and step mother, Addy Hales, preceded her in death.

A memorial to the Trinity Lutheran Church, P.O. Box 216, Wheatland, Wyoming 82201 would be appreciated by the family.

Arrangements are through Gorman Funeral Homes-Platte Chapel in Wheatland.